Shield-Bearing Mook

aka: Shield Mook

"When its shield is at the ready, most attacks will be quite futile."

A mook that carries some sort of a shield that protects them from standard attacks from the front. They may be able to do a Shield Bash and can often protect other mooks with the shield. Usual ways to dispose of him are: attack him from the back or from the side; hit the shield enough times so that it breaks; use some sort of a special attack to break the shield or knock it out of their hands; hitting the enemy with an area-of-effect attack such as an explosive that the shield can't deflect; wait for him to drop his guard, usually to attack, and then quickly Counter-Attack him.

A variation of Kung Fu-Proof Mook. Very often an Elite Mook. See also Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me, Shields Are Useless, Heavily Armored Mook, Armor-Piercing Attack, and Anti-Armor.

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Examples:

Video Games

Action

• Chew Man Fu features the Kappa whose shells protect them against attacks from behind.
• One enemy from Ghostrunner has a laser shield that blocks your sword and sends you flying backwards if you come into contact with the shield. You either have to use one of your special attacks to get past the shield or run around to hit enemy's back.
• Jet Force Gemini: Some of the insectile Drones wear metallic rectangular shields that cover their whole bodies, so they're only vulnerable when they shoot (as they have to look at you with their heads and shoot with the pistols in their limbs).
• Legend Of Hero Tonma have knight enemies armed with shields, who can absorb plenty of your projectile attacks. You can defeat them by spamming blasts, or instead try to Goomba Stomp them.
• The Suffering: Ties That Bind: Some Foundation soldiers are equipped with bulletproof riot shields. They often advance forward while trying to provide cover for the regular soldiers.
• Top Hunter: Roddy & Cathy have taller, muscular pirate enemies armed with spiked shields that can take far more damage than regular enemies.

Action-Adventure

• Alice: Madness Returns had the Madcaps in the Hatter's domain. They fought with spoons and table knives, wore cups as helmets and occasionally used dinner plates as shields. These were completely unbreakable, so the solution was usually to target one in the back by either waiting for one to perform their Deadly Lunge attack and get their weapon stuck in the ground or distracting them with the Rabbit.
• ANNO: Mutationem: The attack forces of The Consortium come equipped with shields to defend from attacks or use to bash for damage.
• The Batman: Arkham Series have some mooks with riot shields in most areas.
• In Danganronpa: Ultra Despair Girls, Guard Monokuma use their shields to walk towards Komaru while defending other variants of Monokuma.
• Eternal Daughter: Some Dungaga are enemies equipped with tall shields. They're completely immune to melee and require ranged attacks or the use of a Goomba Stomp.
• In The Force Unleashed II, the Wardroids carry a giant shield that blocks all attacks until the player enters an Action Command sequence where Starkiller rips off the shield and throws it.
• The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon: Some grublins are armed with shields, which allow them to block Spyro and Cynder's regular attacks but not their Fury breath.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The Legend of Zelda: The Darknuts have shields that protect their fronts from attack.
  • Zelda II: The Adventure of Link: Some humanoid enemies, primarily Gery, Iron Knuckles and Stalfos, carry shields to block most of Link's attacks and can only be harmed from the front when these are lowered or by striking at their legs.
  • The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap: Darknuts and Black Knights have a shield and a sword. They charge at you, but swash away any sword attack you may try to get in. The key to defeating them is to roll around (they are rather slow to turn around), then deliver massive hurtage from behind.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess has Lizalfos and Aeralfos, who must be stunned or shields destroyed in order to kill them, and Darknuts, who are defeated via superior swordsmanship or by taking out their outer armor with bomb arrows.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword gives these to the huge Moblins; one with a wooden, one with a banded shield. The ones with wooden shields can be chopped up or blown out of the Moblin's hand, but the only recourse for the banded shields is to climb them and jump over. For that matter, thanks to the MotionPlus based combat, nearly all enemies have ways to defend themselves from your attacks. Even the lowly Bokoblins are surprisingly able at blocking your sword. Each enemy also has different ways of getting past its defenses.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has enemies that will use shields liberally to block your attacks. You can wait for them to drop their guard or you can also use a heavy weapon like an axe or claymore to knock them off balance or, if the weapon's attack stat is higher than the shield's defense, knock it out of their hands. Shocking enemies with the Shock Arrows will force them to drop their weapons and shield as well.
• Mad Max (2015): Each of the three raider groups has some mooks that are equipped with shields.
• Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom had a shield-bearing variation of normal and armored Dark Warriors. These can only be damaged in melee when they lower them to attack. Later on, some will also get special stones in the shields that block one of majin's magical abilities. There's even a Headlong Rush achievement for trying to attack them 100 times when their shield is still raised.
• Remember Me: Riot-shield-equipped Heavy Enforcers appear in the last few levels. They cannot be attacked from the front and they'll usually turn around before you can flank them. Luckily, one hit from your Junk Shot will break the shields, after which they're no different from regular enforcers.
• Shadow Guardian has Jason facing enemy mooks armed with riot shields, which provides slightly better defenses than unshielded enemies. But they can still be taken out using the RPG or shotgun.
• Shrek the Third has elite pirates with tridents and lobster-engraved silver shields, as well as knights with axes and heavy round shields. Both are immune to regular attacks and can only be defeated with the use of special abilities or if their shield is broken by the Charged Attack first.
• Son of Nor: The more advanced Sarahul warriors are equipped with shields, and they'll defend themselves from any thrown items with them. Luckily, it's possible to pull the shields from their hands before throwing them right back at their original owners.
• Spider-Man (PS4): Certain mooks carry shields that make them impervious to standard web and melee attacks from the front. Performing a melee and dodge combo, which allows Spidey to maneuver underneath them and hit them from behind, is the most straightforward way of dealing with them.

Beat 'em Ups

• Blade Master has Lizard Folk enemies carrying shields as mooks.
• Bladed Fury has enemies using round bronze shields in several areas, their weapons offering them better defenses than regular mooks.
• Bloody Zombies have zombified SWAT personnel who still carries their riot shields around, which they repeatedly use to Shield Bash you.
• The shield-carrying rat bandits from Chipmonk!. Their shields give them better cover, until the player managed to attack them from behind.
• Crisis Beat: Downplayed with the Janis-type enemies. They're armed with small, buckler shields that covers less area than a trashcan lid, but they can use their shields to break the player's Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs. It's far more effective to use grapple attacks and fling them over instead.
• Dusty Revenge and the prequel, Dusty Raging Fist both contains rhino-men mooks armed with shields.
• An Egyptian Tale has burly cultists armed with thick wooden shields, giving them slightly better defense than the usual cultists.
• Exorcist Fairy has the Cube-Heads, who carries shields alongside curved swords and can use then to parry your forward slash. The False Knight, one of the earlier bosses, is notably a King Mook version of the shielded Cube-Heads.
• The tortoise-men enemies from Gaia Crusaders, whose shields are their shells.
• Hidden Dragon: Legend has the Trigram's "Defender"-class mooks, green-clad enemies armed with light bronze shields alongside curved swords, their shields useful for parrying slashes. Their Mook Debut Cutscene sees the leader intimidating you with some Shield Banging.
• Justice League Heroes: The Flash has a robotic-type of mook which can block The Flash's basic attacks.
• Knights of Valour have shield-carrying soldiers in all the games, all their shields having a scary demonic face painted at the front to intimidate their foes.
• Legend (1994) has shield-carrying bandits who have slightly better defenses than regular mooks.
• Legend of Heroes has Hun swordsmen who carries wooden shields in conjunction with curved swords.
• The Legend of Tian-ding has soldiers armed with riot shields who can take more damage, unless you destroy their shields by repeated punching or yank their shields off using your sash. You can keep their shields afterwards for blocking other enemy attacks. As part of the game's Anachronism Stew, the shields appears to be of the modern-day variety (the game is set in 1900s Taiwan).
• Not Dying Today have SWAT zombies as well, which uses their riot shields to block your attacks while trying to hit you with batons from behind.
• Shuihuzhuan: Liangshan Yingxiong has enemy mooks armed with bronze shields bearing painted tiger faces, and they're among the few enemys you can't knock down instantly with a projectile attack.
• Streets of Rage 4: The "Murphy" enemy is a SWAT officer who defends himself with a deployable energy shield. Which makes you wonder what kind of police budget Wood Oak city has…

First-Person Shooter

• Beyond Sunset has basic enemies with riot shields in a few levels. You can relive them of their shield using a Charged Attack from your default pistol.
• Putrefaction 2 has putrids armed with crude shields in the earlier stages, and later on you uncover the secret Nazi base, complete with soldiers armed with riot shields.
• Sharpshooter 3D have the riot police enemies who can block your attacks, where you need to aim above their shields or try running behind them to shoot them in their backs.
• Trepang2:
  • Enemies with a ballistic shield can block your bullets. You have to shoot their exposed feet or hands, or flank them by using the Cloak. Alternatively, sliding into them knocks them into the air, allowing you to shoot or grab them.
  • Some enemies, notably some of the Corporate Soldiers, wield a smaller deployable combat shield. It only protects their upper torso, but has a slot through which they can fire a two-handed weapon (such as a rifle, SMG, or shotgun) while wielding it.

Hack & Slash

• Apotheon: There are many shield-bearing enemies. Much like the player, they can hold it in top, middle and bottom positions to protect themselves from downward swings, central stabs and leg attacks, respectively. You need to either time your attacks correctly, attack in the back or at range, or equip warhammer to break the shield apart.
• Bayonetta has Ardor Angels, some of which are able to block most of your attacks with shields.
• Devil May Cry: There are plenty of shield-bearing demons in the series, but with varying defensive capabilities, gimmicks, or weaknesses.
  • Devil May Cry: Fetish demons are equipped with two small, round sawblades that they also use like shields. The Blades are also equipped with small round shields that can deflect some attacks.
  • Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening: The Dullahans are equipped with buzzsaw-edged shields that make them impervious to all frontal attacks.
  • Devil May Cry 4: Bianco Angelos ("White Angels") and Alto Angelos ("High Angels") have collapsible one-handed wing shields which grant them flight, offer them protection from your attacks, and allow them to bash you as a Counter-Attack. Their shields can be broken to negate their protection and flight, but are eventually repaired after a while. The shield-bearing Blades from DMC1 also have identical counterparts in this game (called Assaults) but their shields are easier to destroy than the Angelos'.
  • DmC: Devil May Cry: The game has shielded Bathos/Pathos and Death Knight enemies that are dealt with using specific attacks that can break through their defenses, mostly via heavier attacks and Demon-aligned weapons.
  • Devil May Cry 5: Scudo Angelos are this game's version of a sword-and-shield demon knight, capable of blocking some of your attacks as usual, but are also left defenseless when their shields are broken after repeated hits.
• Dynasty Warriors: Shield-carrying Defense Captains and their defense squads, usually assigned to protect bases. They carry large square iron shields and polearms, and had a maddening tendency to just block in your direction constantly and thus take forever to kill without a little help or creativity. Samurai Warriors has the very similar Heavy Infantry unit, usually seen guarding castles or gates, but at least it's possible to destroy their wooden shields, reducing their threat to barely above that of a common spear Mook.
• Eastern Exorcist has recurring shielded rat-men enemies, who carries round bronze shields capable of parrying most of your attacks.
• Full Metal Furies: The Hoplite and Legionnaire enemies are styled after their namesakes from the Ancient Greece and Rome, which includes the shields.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers had the Goblins and Orcs with shields. Orcs were tougher and more powerful, although Goblins had an additional Deadly Lunge attack. In both cases, they were immune to frontal blows until you smashed the shield with a heavy attack.
• No More Heroes III: The Diversity deploys a shield whenever Travis gets close enough, but its backside is still exposed.
• Ryse: Son of Rome: Shield-bearing barbarians keep their guard up most of the time and need to be attacked only when they lower it.

Metroidvanias

• Castlevania: Various enemies throughout the series. Some have shields that don't seem to do much, others can only be damaged if an attack reaches a non-shield area, and others still can completely block attacks with their shield. Examples of the latter are the dead crusader, which will block all attacks coming from the front, unless it is preparing to attack or is surprised, and the final guard, which is vulnerable normally but can get in a defensive stance that makes it invulnerable.
• Chasm includes some skeletons who fight with swords and shields. However, they can still be harmed from the front through striking at the exposed skulls between their shields and helmets.
• Iconoclasts: The submachinegun-wielding One Concern Attackers are occasionally reinforced by the Defenders, who lack a gun, but are immune to regular melee and ranged attacks from the front due to their shields, and attack by producing a blue Shockwave Stomp instead. They are still somewhat affected by the bomb detonations, but the easiest way to knock them out is through Goomba Stomp.
• Metroid Prime 3: Corruption: Some of its Space Pirates are armed with energy shields; you can rip these off with your Grapple Lasso.
• La-Mulana has Masked Men, common Mooks whose shields block frontal attacks.
• Unworthy: Each Sentinel is a Giant Mook Golem with a man-sized sword, and correspondingly high health and damage, partly compensated for by their slow speed. Now, the shielded Sentinels are the same thing, except that they are protected from frontal damage with a tower shield. Thankfully, a single Ground Pound from the Hammer of Unmaking is enough to destroy the shield. Interestingly, Grimoire description states they created the shield on their own after gaining glimmers of sentience over time.

MMORPG

• Spiral Knights has T2 and higher Mecha Knights, Trojans and Deadnaughts. Subverted with the former, as they block only firearm shots and only for a brief time. The latter two also overlap with Elite Mooks and Boss in Mook Clothing.
• Warframe: Several Grineer soldiers carry shields that make the bulletproof from front. They occasionally expose themselves to open fire, but it's usually easier to attack them with your special abilities.
• World of Warcraft:
  • One of the bosses in Grim Batol switches between weapon sets, and one of them is a huge shield that protects him from the front.
  • Mooks with this feature were introduced during the Will of the Emperor encounter and have since become a common mechanic in boss fights, often to force the players to move around the field (such as the Sha of Fear encounter — the raid mostly hangs out in an area protected from the boss's deadly breath weapons, but from there they can't hit the shielded mooks).

Platformers

• The Adventures of Rad Gravity: Many of the enemy robots on the planet Utopia, as well as its boss, are equipped with impenetrable frontal shields. For the former, you have to bait another robot into shooting them in the back, while the latter requires you to hand Crystal Bombs to a friendly NPC so she can hit it from behind, since it always turns to face Rad.
• Bionic Commando: The Wired Gunner has a bulletproof shield and is nearly impossible to get behind. In the remake, the two platoon leaders each have a Chest of Medals for a frontal shield, and there are also mooks with conventional shields.
• Broforce: Some enemies are unarmed, but protect fellow terrorists with the large riot shields that deflect any bullets fired at them from the front. Destroying their shields with explosives and melee attacks forces them to run away, if they can.
• Curse Crackers: For Whom The Belle Toils: Early on, you'll find skeletons that carry shields, meaning that they can't be damaged from the side the shield is on. There are also skeletons that wear helmets, meaning you can't defeat them by jumping on them. As you progress, you'll find more enemies like this, with some having both a helmet and a shield, some also having weapons, and some that can throw their shields at you.
• Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!: Koin and Koindozer. The former have to be defeated in order to earn DK Coins for every level, while the latter are exclusive to one level where they Shield Bash you into Bottomless Pits.
• Flashback: The Quest For Identity: The player and some opponents use Force Field devices. When used, these completely protect from frontal attacks, but only for a few moments.
• Gamer 2: Some of the police enemies wield riot shields, which let them block a bullet once a second.
• Mega Man:
  • Mega Man (Classic) has the recurring Sniper Joes (whose shields block most shots), Metools (whose hardhats do the same), and Shield Attackers (an airborne version). Some games have other enemies protected by some measure of shields; in most cases, you have to wait for them to start attacking before you can actually destroy them.
  • Mega Man Legends has one type of enemy that hides behind a shield; you can dismember their shields with the correct weapon, otherwise you have to wait for them to drop their guard.
  • Mega Man X8 gave X, Zero and Axl guard breaking attacks (charged shot, 3 hit saber combo or 8 rapid fire bullets, respectively) to deal with the increased number of shield bearing mavericks from previous games.
• Mercenary Kings:
  • The game has The Shield Guard and his incendiary and electrical versions. All three of those are only vulnerable if you get behind him or when he lowers his guard to shoot. Weapons with corrosive damage can also corrode the shield, which causes them to panic and shoot rapidly at you. There's also the Abductor enemy, which functions the same, but uses a hostage you're meant to save (though nothing prevents you from not doing so) instead of a shield.
  • There are also the Charger enemies, which lack ranged weapons and will instead charge at you to inflict Collision Damage with their spiked shield. Finally, there's a shield-equipped Mandragora turret late in the game.
• Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc: There are occasional mooks who hide behind big wooden shields and who release tiny mooks that hold explosives and charge at you.
• Shovel Knight features a few enemies who carry shields that make largely invulnerable: Hoppicleses who prance around with shields that nullify most frontal attacks and several variants of goldarmors who can raise their shields to resist attacks from above.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (and Sonic the Hedgehog 4) has Crawl, a crablike robot who blocks all attacks from the front and from above with his shield.
  • Sonic Adventure 2 has the Shield Hunters. Sonic and Shadow can defeat them by somersaulting, while Tails and Eggman can shoot them when they are off guard, charging their lasers.
  • Sonic Heroes: Certain Egg Pawn enemies have shields. Sonic, Shadow, Amy, and Espio can blow them away using their tornado attack. Some shields can be destroyed with several basic attacks, and others are equipped with spikes.
• Spelunky HD has the Black Knight as a semi-major enemy in the Jungle area (specifically, in the Haunted Castle, only accessible from a Restless Dead level). His shield reflects all projectiles, including bullets and sticky bombs^note Starts about 18 seconds in, if the link doesn't skip to -that part, and he can also crush other creatures and objects -- including you -- against the walls with it. Performing a Goomba Stomp deprived him of it, however.
• SpongeBob SquarePants Creature from the Krusty Krab has an enemy type that carries a shield. SpongeBob must use his Dash Attack to stun the foe and then attack it by using his Sand Slap move to defeat them. This shielded enemy comes in two aesthetics; a thuggish fish (encountered in the Dieseling Dreaming level) and a lobster-like creature (found in Alaskan Belly Trouble).
• Spyro the Dragon: Most enemies in the original series either have shields or are made of metal, which make them immune to your regular flame attack. The best way to defeat them is either use your tackle or use the much stronger Super Flame breath.

Puzzle Games

• Gruntz: The dark green enemy gruntz always hold shields (in the levels made by the developers, anyway).
• Kickle Cubicle has Rooker, whose shield will actually reflect Kickle's freezing attack back at him.

Real-Time Strategy

• Age of Empires II has Skirmishers and their two upgraded variations as an alternative ranged unit to archers for all factions. They fight with throwing spears and so do less damage but compensate for that by being equipped with round shields, giving them higher resistance to ranged attacks. The Italians have the Genoese Crossbowmen as their unique, Castle-built unit. These have better defence against melee damage than the normal crossbowman due to their huge shield, and the Italians' unique Pavise technology (the name of the shield) increases both ranged and melee defence.
• Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3: Allied Peacekeepers have riot shields that they can take cover behind, slowing them down but making them resistant to fire until they can bring their shotguns to bear.
• Warcraft III:
  • Human Footmen, which were able to go into the Defending mode by raising their shield high up in front of them and moving slower. They would not only gain protection from standard ranged attacks but would even be able to occasionally deflect projectiles backwards after upgrades (it's not rare to see a "duel" between a flying unit and a defending footman end with the flyer dead after having its own attacks sent back).
  • While they aren't visible in the normal game, bandits (neutral units carrying a shield and an axe/javelin) have the Defend animation, but not the ability. Spell Breakers (elven Anti-Magic units with ridiculously huge shields) also have the animation and there's a Dummied Out ability that makes them immune to magic by raising their shields (in the regular game, they're permanently immune instead).

Role-Playing Games

• The Banner Saga: Dredge Stoneguards, whose shields greatly increase the number of hit points of an enemy that is already eight to nine feet tall and encased in armour from head to toe. They can also do a Shield Bash attack, which is area-of-effect.
• Borderlands 2:
  • The main game features Nomad Taskmasters, which carry man-height riot shields that soak up all bullets. However, they have a hole in the middle, which is covered by a chained midget. Destroy those chains and they'll fight each other, giving you time to flank them. Badass Nomads have huge (though still destructible) spikes on their shields instead, which makes their Shield Bash all the more devastating.
  • "Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt" DLC has Savage Warriors, who carry oblong wooden Zulu-style shields. These shields mitigate all melee damage that hits them dead on, and while they don't do nearly as well against bullets, Warriors are appreciably harder to kill than other Savage enemy types.
  • In "Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep", there are both Skeleton Gladiators, who wield small buckler shields, and knights, who have huge tower shields. In both cases, regular bullets bounce right off — and knights will raise their shields and take a knee now and then.
• Crowntakers: There are both barbarians and members of the Royal Guard who carry shields. These enemies tend to have less health overall than the soldiers with two-handed weapons, but possess regenerating "magic armor" points instead.
• Darkest Dungeon starts out with the Bone Defender and its Veteran and Champion versions Bone Bulwark and Bone Shieldwall as the Ruins' area "tank" enemy. It deals slightly less damage with its axe than a Bone Soldier of the same rank, but can also stun your characters with Shield Bash attack "Dead Weight". Then, the Cove area introduced Pelagic Guardians/Gladiators, who cannot stun, but whose basic attack inflicts Bleed. Crucially, they are able to guard fellow Pelagics, taking all damage intended for them, although it can be countered by stunning them, or using AoE attacks, and the A.I. Roulette often meant they guard poor targets anyway. Post-release update added the guard ability, "Foul Ward", to Bone Defenders as well. The Crimson Court DLC features a subversion with Manservants, who guard their masters (or sometimes, random mosquitoes) with the closed meal trays. However, this only lasts up until they succumb to The Thirst and heal themselves with the blood of your characters. At that point, they only use the meal trays to shock your mercenaries through opening them to reveal their contents.
• Dark Souls:
  • Dark Souls 1 has a fair number of shield-bearing enemies. Most only gain a more effective block and are not actually invincible because of them. The one exception are the shield-bearing giants in Anor Londo, which have to be flanked to do any real damage.
  • Dark Souls 2 goes a step further with the Imperious Knights in the Undead Crypt, which carry two greatshields and no other weapons. They fight exclusively through Shield Bashing. It's widely believed that these enemies are a reference to players in the original Dark Souls using shields exclusively as a Self-Imposed Challenge (or just to troll people in PvP).
• Dragon Age: Origins and its Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening expansion pack had plenty of human, skeleton and darkspawn enemies with shields, all of whom used the same skill tree as the shield warriors in the player party. Thus, they had better defence than others and spammed variations of Shield Bash but none required special tactics. The Legacy DLC for Dragon Age II was a different story. The new ape-like Genlock Alphas were practically invincible from the front and had to be flanked or magicked to death. Like Origins, Dragon Age: Inquisition has numerous shield-bearing enemy warriors; like II, they deflect damage from the front but some special attacks can be used to stun them or knock them over, rendering them vulnerable for a short time.
• Dragon Quest IX: The Gum Shield and Grim Grinner, among others, use shields to great effect to block attacks. Fortunately for the player, they don't always use them.
• A lot of rank-and-file soldiers found across Elden Ring carry shields, and take Scratch Damage from frontal attacks while they're guarding. Some soldiers carry greatshields and spears and are harder to hit head-on. Attacking into their shields can expose you to a Counter-Attack from them. You'll also find many types of shield-bearing knights that are really tanky in a straight fight.
• Kingdom Hearts:
  • Defender Heartless are invincible to melee attacks from the front, so the only way to attack them effectively is to aim for the back or spam magic attacks at them.
  • Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]: The various Kyroo dream eaters all pack shields and while not perpetually invulnerable from the front like the aforementioned enemy, they're smart enough to raise them in response to you randomly taking a swing at them, after which they'll retaliate while you're reeling. They can even Flash Step in front of an enemy who's about to take a hit in order to protect them.
• In The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero, an enemy 'Living Shield', which is an actual large shield construct made of alchemy, which makes its unique armor resistant to arts.
• Marvel Ultimate Alliance has shield-bearing mooks. You have to either grapple their shields and pull them from their hands, strike them in the back or charge up a special move to bypass them.
• Mass Effect:
  • Mass Effect 3: Cerberus Guardians are otherwise-normal mooks that carry large shields and slowly yet inexorably advance on you until they're in range to shotgun you. However, their feet are exposed, and there is also a thin slot in the upper center of the shield to provide vision(in fact, you gain an Achievement for killing 10 of them in this manner). Alternately, you can stagger them with certain powers, use Pull to rip it off them, or just equip an armor-piercing weapon mod to punch straight through the shield.
  • The Citadel DLC also has the CAT6 Heavies, which generate the shield with their omni-tools. Not being a physical object, it cannot be pulled off them or shot through: however, it is also much smaller, can be taken out with Overload and still retains the slot in spite of being translucent. Annoyingly, they have armor rather than health bar preventing them from being targeted directly by Overload, but Energy Drain works fine and Overload can still arc to them.
• Pokémon X and Y: Aegislash has extreme defenses but pitiful offenses when it's in Shield Forme, but these are switched around in Sword Forme. Aegislash swaps to Sword Forme right before it attacks, but it can use the priority move King's Shield to swap back to Shield Forme. Of course, being Pokemon, it's also a playable mook.
• The Steven Universe RPGs feature enemies with shields, reducing your attacks to Scratch Damage. Their shields can be broken using shield-breaking moves. Save the Light repositions your party so that they can hit shielded mooks from behind for more damage, while Unleash the Light adds new enemies that give their'' allies shields. Some of them provide Single-Use Shields while others provide Armor Packs, which absorb all your attacks until they break. They should be the ones taken out first, while those with Armor Packs are weak to armor-breaking moves.
• Wandering Hamster features enemy knights who aren't invincible with their shields, but with right combination of elemental attacks you can break their shields, greatly reducing their defence until they bring out another.

Run & Gun

• Commando (Capcom): Shield Soldiers are bulletproof from all directions and must be taken out with grenades.
• Elevator Action Returns: Certain enemies are equipped with a shield, but a single shot will knock them out of their hands. Just don't forget to shoot them again.
• Maldita Castilla: The enemies include shielded knights who are vulnerable only a fraction of second after tossing a knife.
• Metal Slug: One of the regular mooks carries a shield, and only lets his guard down when he tries to slash/shoot you. One level lets you play the Battleship Raid with one of the three, he tends to survive the longest, as the shield lets him survive more than a single bullet. The riot shields can be blown away with a grenade but it's more economical to just shoot them.

Shooters

• 8Bit Killer features Roman-esque soldiers who stand in one place holding a shield that renders them invincible until they lower it to fire, which they will delay if you keep shooting them.
• Binary Domain: Some enemy robots protect themselves with metal shields.
• Black has two variants of soldiers with bulletproof shields. Type 1 has a bigger metal shield that he plants on the ground and peeks his submachine gun from behind to fire; Type 2 has a smaller, degradable (but still resistant) polymer shield that allows him to move around just like an unarmored mook. Both are best taken out with grenades: Type 1s won't react to them at all and will get blown up, while Type 2s will turn towards the grenade and crouch to protect himself from the blast, leaving himself fully exposed to the player's gunfire.
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2: Enemies with bulletproof riot shields are completely impervious to frontal attacks, and must either be flanked from the sides or taken out with explosives.
• Deadstorm Pirates: The giant crabs use their oversized right claw to block damage. Hence, they should only be attacked when they lift it up.
• Deep Rock Galactic: Glyphid Grunt Guards can use their heavily-armored forelegs to block incoming damage, protecting their head and any other bugs that may be behind them. They do have a few weaknesses, however: they can't block explosives or elemental damage, stunning them makes them stumble and expose their head, and they can't keep their forelegs together for very long, and will stop blocking after several seconds.
• Doom:
  • Doom³: The rarest type of zombie soldier carries a large, bulletproof metal riot shield.
  • Doom (2016): Possessed Security carry energy shields that can absorb most forms of attack and can be used to bash you. Thankfully, the chainsaw is more than up to the task of dealing with them. In the sequel, their shields can be overloaded with a couple of shots from a Plasma Rifle.
  • Doom Eternal: Carcasses aren't very threatening themselves, but they can project an energy wall at a range. It's less for protecting itself and more for blocking your movement and shots, especially rockets. The Marauder, on the other hand, will block anything you throw at him with his shield and only gives you a small window of opportunity to damage him.
• The Combine Chargers in Half-Life: Alyx can create an energy shield with a device on their arm to block incoming damage and release a blinding flash of light as they deactivate the shield.
• Halo:
  • Jackals have a large circular energy shield on one arm to defend from frontal attacks. It completely deflects bullets, but can be disrupted by sufficient energy weapons fire or a melee attack. There's also a small slot in the corner for the Jackal to stick their weapon through; their bodies can be targeted through this gap if you have sufficiently good aim.
  • Halo: Reach adds Skirmishers, who are basically stronger and faster Jackals. Most of them don't carry shields, but one variant has smaller shields on both of their arms that are mainly there to protect against headshots.
  • Hunters, although they're heavily armored in general, also have a forearm shield to guard their weak points and smash down enemies who get too close.
• Hexen: Centaurs and Slaughtaurs carry missile-deflecting shields. You have to wait for them to lower them to attack again. The Heresiarch has a similar, more powerful mechanic, but it doesn't take the form of a literal shield.
• Killzone Shadow Fall has the Helghast soldiers equipped with bulletproof riot shields and shotguns, who are also smart enough to protect their allies whenever possible. The best way to kill them is usually to use the OWL drone to distract them from you.
• Mass Effect: Infiltrator has shotgun-equipped Cerberus Riot Troopers. Their shields are fairly small, leaving more of their body exposed.
• PAYDAY: The Heist has Shields, which are SWAT units that carry bulletproof shields. They carry submachine guns and have more health than standard mooks, but are vulnerable to flanking attacks and the GL40. They return in the sequel, where they're now vulnerable to sniper rifles and fire as well. In addition, Captain Winters has his own squad of Shield-Bearing Elite Mooks, which have half the health of a Bulldozer and can't be one-shot under most circumstances.
• Project Brutality: Shotgun guys wield giant riot shields, which make them invincible to punches and bullets when they're up (but not explosions or berserk-powered melee).
• Rainbow Six Vegas 2 has some mooks wield bulletproof riot shields. They either have to be flanked or require grenades and other explosives to take out. To make matters worse, they usually wield Raging Bull revolvers, which will chew through your health if you let them get a bead on you.
• Singularity: Some soldiers carry bulletproof riot shields around. Besides flanking them, it's possible to use the hero's powers to age them to dust or simply grab them out of their hands.
• Splatoon:
  • Some Octotrooper variants in the singleplayer campaigns have a large shield protecting their front; while outright impervious to most attacks in the first game, subsequent entries allow them to eventually destroyed by any weapon (though they're still resilient enough that this should only be done as a last resort).
  • In Salmon Run, Scrappers pilot an armored vehicle protected from the front, sides, and top, effectively being a motorized shield. However, they're completely exposed at the back, so players must either shoot the shields enough to stun the driver and head to the back to splat the driver, or shoot it once to distract them so another player can shoot them in the back.
• TimeShift: One of the Superpowered Mooks types is equipped with an impenetrable arm-mounted energy shield. Explosives can damage them through the shield, and freezing time causes the shield to disappear entirely.
• Transformers:
  • Transformers (2004): There are shielded Decepticlones in later levels; their shields can be destroyed with sustained firepower.
  • Transformers: War for Cybertron has the Brute, a low-level heavy mook that blocks fire with an energy shield until it gets close enough to pummel you with its hammer. If you try to play keep away with a flyer, they whip out a missile launcher to swat you from the air and bring you back within reach.
• Warhammer 40,000:
  • Fire Warrior: Adeptus Mechanicus Tech-Priests and Chaos Sorcerers protect themselves with bubble shields while they try to fry you with Plasma/Warp fire. Unfortunately for them, shooting the shield enough will cause it to implode with them still in it.
  • Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine: The Ork 'Ard Boyz are covered in slabs of armour much like in the source material, but also have riot shields with them.

Simulation

• In Potion Permit, some monsters carry shields with them, and you need to break them with your axe.

Stealth-Based Game

• Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater has squads of Elite Mooks with riot shields who show up in certain areas if you're suspected of being nearby. Explosives and shots from behind the shield both work, but there's a special sense of accomplishment reserved for those who headshot them right through the eye slot.
• Some enemy guards in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain will equip bulletproof shields in response to you repeatedly engaging in combat while out on missions. When they're not using it in combat to protect themselves from the front, the shield rests on their back and protects them from attacks from behind.

Survival Horror

• Resident Evil: The later, actionised games included humanoid enemies with human-sized shields. In Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5, many cultists carry large wooden shields that break apart piece by piece when shot with bullets, and can be pierced outright with high-powered weapons such as sniper rifles.

Tower Defense

• Kingdom Rush series:
  • The original game has a Shield-Bearing Boss in Ulguk-Hai. He's completely invulnerable to any form of damage when his shield is up, and he only puts it down when he's in combat with your troops.
  • Origins has the Twilight Avenger enemies that sport gigantic amounts of physical armor when not in combat. Their armor decreases when in combat as they have to put away their shield.
  • Vengeance has the appropriately-named Shieldbearers who hold a shield that's almost as big as they are and sport gigantic amounts of physical armor. They lose said physical armor when engaged in combat with your troops since they have to put away their shield.
• Plants vs. Zombies:
  • The first game has Newspaper Zombies (weak shield, gets pissed when you destroy it), Screen Door Zombies (strong shield), and Ladder Zombies (medium-strength shield that can be placed on your defensive unit to bypass it). All three can block frontal shots, but are vulnerable to arced shots, fumes (produced by the Fume-Shroom and Gloom-Shroom), and spikes.
  • Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time has the Excavator Zombie, whose shield (a golden, non-magnetic shovel) has infinite health, and can also throw plants to the front rows with it. It's vulnerable to piercing attacks like the Laser Bean, as well as lobbed shots. Then there's the Parasol Zombie who holds a parasol that bounces an indefinite amount of lobbed shots off, but is vulnerable to frontal attacks. And unfortunately, both of them appear in the same worlds and levels...

Turn-Based Tactics

• Skyshine's Bedlam: Every enemy faction has its own version of the shield-carrying, melee-only Frontliner class. Marauder Frontliners carry maces and red hexagonal shields with skulls drawn on them. Mutant ones have triangular shields that appear to grow out of their own bone, and wield similarly biological weapons. Cyborgs have rectangular metal shields and single-edged laser blades. Rogue A.I. Frontliners use round shields, purple laser beams and can teleport.

Web Games

• Get Off My Lawn (2009): Welderbeasts and their tougher cousin, Molesharks, have shields (a welding mask and a drill bit) in front of them to protect against frontal engagements.
• Union City, the sequel to The Last Stand games, has the riot police zombies. Even after death, they still carry their riot shields on top of the bulletproof helmets and armored vests, forcing the player to go for the feet to inflict more than Scratch Damage. Luckily, they have to lower the shield when attacking and are also the slowest enemies in the game.

Non-Video Game Examples

Card Games

• Yu-Gi-Oh!:
  • One monster in Yugi's deck (Big Shield Gardna) is a man crouching behind a ginormous shield, with very high defense and ridiculously low attack.
  • Millennium Shield is an even more extreme example as it's literally a shield with no attack at all.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons: Fire giant dreadnoughts double-wield immense, spiked tower shields, which provide them with formidable physical defense in addition to being usable for powerful Shield Bashes.

Real Life

• The ever-indefatigable Roman legionary. All of the main-line soldiers were equipped with huge tower shields to protect against enemy projectiles, and the whole formation could transition into a "tortoise" (testudo — forward rank locks shields to the front, those behind place them on their heads) for added protection to the whole group.
• Greek hoplites, whose hoplos shield was so central to their fighting style that they were named after it.
• Shield walls in general rely on the idea that the shields form an unbroken line both protecting and supporting the men on either side of the wielder. The counter-strategy in this case is to force the enemy to break formation.
• Medieval infantry, equipped with thrusting spear and shield. Better than levies and forced peasant conscripts and able to keep cavalry at bay, but not necessarily match for dismounted knights with two-handed swords and poleaxes.
• Another example would be pavisiers, soldiers carrying large shields that could often be set down as Deployable Cover. And as an example of the "shieldbearer protecting an ally" occurance, they were commonly paired with an archer or crossbowman, assuming the pavise wasn't to be carried by the person using it as mobile cover.
• Modern Real Life examples: riot police and their acryllic shields.

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